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darkfalcon-z · 8 years ago

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You cannot take it back, make it undone chapter 3: Vegeta

DBZ AU fanfiction.

Raditz, Gohan, Vegeta, Nappa

over 1600 words, space fantasy/soft science fiction/slice of life (I know, right), gen

warning: expect things you’d expect from Saiyans (authors note by chapter one)

Many thanks to Over8000 for proofreading this chapter.

Comments welcome. Come on don’t be shy!

first chapter, second

next chapter

chapter directory

on AO3

Several months prior.

Raditz woke up from artificially induced sleep. His tiny spacecraft neared its destination. Soon he was going to meet Vegeta and Nappa for their new assignment. He checked his position in relation to the navigation beacons. Everything had run according to expectations. He looked at the chronometer. Thirty seven hours had passed since he left Earth, or ten times that long, depending where you took the measure. There was only an hour remaining until landing. He needed to prepare himself mentally.

On his lap, the sleeping cub stirred. Oh yeah, right, he had to somehow prepare the boy as well.

There was no way to make this particular cub look acceptable in such a short time, but if he kept cool, he probably would survive this. They both would.

He nudged the cub. He had slept even longer than Raditz, it was time to wake up.

The cub yawned and stretched out. Then he realised where he was, and with whom, and started panicking. In the limited space, there was no getting away.

"Calm the fuck down!" Raditz ordered.

It worked. Somewhat. The cub settled a bit but continued sobbing and snivelling.

Raditz eyed him critically.

"Cease your cries! Do you want to be seen like that? If your enemies saw you crying they would know your weakness and they would attack to take advantage of it. And if your allies saw how weak you are they'd abandon you," he admonished.

"What enemies?" The cub whimpered. "I'm just a little boy. Where is my Dad?"

"I wouldn't fucking know. He saw you cry and decided you are not worth it." Raditz was irritated. The cub’s plight felt a little close for comfort.

"You lie! Dad would never do that!" The cub looked angrily at him, tears slowly drying up.

"You called it. I lied." Raditz admitted unabashed. "The truth is, he's dead." The truth was, he

wasn't happy with the turn of events either.

The cub looked at him, mortified.

"You've killed him,” he said with audible disbelief. "It's false. You're lying again."

"He is dead." Raditz repeated. “but it wasn't me who killed him. A green guy did it." At those words, the cub started to whimper again.

"Don't worry, I killed the green bastard myself, so your father is avenged." Unfortunately those words of assurance didn't have much effect on the cub’s mood. It couldn't be because the cub wanted avenge his father himself. He was obviously much too weak to handle that green guy now and he had to know it. He wouldn't want to delay his revenge for gods know how long, would he?

Raditz didn't quite know what to do. He would opt for violence, but they were inside the pod and he didn't know how would the cub react. He suspected more crying would ensue and he didn't want that. Then again the cub could always try to retaliate, which in different situation would be a welcome outcome. In that case, Raditz would just overpower him and that would be the end of it. However they were in a space pod, where their freedom of movement was greatly limited. It would be ill advised to start a fight, which could lead to breaking some part of the machinery.

Unsure of how to proceed, Raditz decided to give the cub a few minutes to collect himself before intervening any further.

Between the sobs he heard the cub murmuring. "... I don't believe...Daddy...lie...bad man... no, no, no...all his fault..."

"You fucking done?" Raditz finally lost his patience.

The cub looked at him, startled and angry.

"Now, your father is dead and as you may've noticed, we are travelling through space in my pod. You are now my responsibility and you have to do as I say. You do what you are told, and you get to live. You don't and you die one way or another. Soon we’ll land on planet Skwash and meet up with our comrades who are Saiyans as well. They are stronger than us, born better. You will show respect and composure. That means no crying. Got that?"

"You took me away from Earth?"

"Oh, we have an intellectual here," Raditz said, half mocking. Truth to be told the cub was quite articulate for the age Raditz suspected him to be. "You got that right. More questions?"

The boy shook his head. Raditz expected he had lots of questions, but was too overwhelmed to formulate them right now. There would be time for that later... or it wouldn't matter at all. Raditz was reasonably sure he was going to get his way, but you never knew with Vegeta.

At least the cub was somewhat calm right now. Raditz took the occasion to snatch the canister of water from under the armrest and drink some.

"Great. I have some questions for you. What's your name?"

"Gohan."

"That's not a Saiyan name. I should give you a new one, a better one."

"But I like my name,” the cub protested. "I don't want any other name!"

"We'll see. It's not like anyone will bother to remember how you are called for now."

The cub did not answer, just gave a tearful, angry stare. Raditz could smell fear on him. It was definitely the dominant emotion right at the moment.

He thrust the water canister into the cub's hands. "Here, have some."

The cub looked up at him startled, once again. Untrusting.

Raditz groaned. "Don't give me that look. You're dehydrated from all that sleep and your stupid fucking, crying. It's just water."

Hesitantly, the cub lifted the big canister to his mouth.

Raditz knew he still needed to instruct the cub about how to act in front of his superiors, but first he had more questions. Also, he needed to assess the cub's abilities before they met up with Vegeta and Nappa.

He started with most obvious one. "How old are you?

***

No one was on the landing site on the foreign planet when they arrived. Raditz checked the coordinates on his scouter, grabbed Gohan, and took to the sky. After several minutes of flight, Raditz dove to the ground and dropped Gohan in front of the awaiting Saiyans.

Gohan knelt on one knee, like he had been instructed, but he was still so shaken, that he needed both hands to support himself in that position. Afraid but curious, he looked up.

There were two of them. One was huge and imposing, so much bigger even than Raditz. Gohan recognized him as Nappa. The other one was... not so much. Next to Nappa, he could pass for a child. That, Gohan knew, was Vegeta. And somehow Gohan didn't even need an explanation that Vegeta was the one to be most afraid of.

Raditz stepped ahead of Gohan, knelt in front of Vegeta, and hit the ground with his fist in a show of reverence.

"Prince Vegeta, my brother is dead," he reported.

"In that case, you have failed your mission. Is that right?" Vegeta inquired.

"Yes, my Prince." Raditz dropped his gaze toward the ground in anger and shame. His jaws tightened. He knew what to anticipate.

Vegeta smiled an ugly smile. "I see."

Upon uttering those words, he kicked the kneeling Raditz in the jaw with enough power to make the latter fall backwards. Without delay, Vegeta stepped on Raditz's stomach and forced him to unwrap his tail or have it smashed. Too quickly for eye to follow, Vegeta grabbed Raditz's tail and squeezed tight.

All of Raditz’s strength abandoned him and all of his attempts of resistance ceased.

"Look at you. You are pathetic," Vegeta proclaimed.

Vegeta yanked Raditz’s tail painfully, then stepped on his head with one foot.

"It's not like I expected any better from you." Vegeta snorted. "You’ve disgraced yourself. We heard everything. You were too lenient. Fucking low-born!" he shouted and kicked Raditz in a frenzy. "You were all too forgiving. You have gave him too many chances. You should have at least disciplined him properly before making him such a generous offer. You should have shown your power. Why do I have to tell you how to do your fucking job?!"

Gohan watched the scene in shock and fear. To think that someone had brought the powerful Raditz so low so easily! Remembering Raditz words earlier he was determined not to cry: “Don't show weakness to people around you - they will use it to take advantage of you. Crying would make things worse. Don't cry before your enemy. “

"Apologies my Prince," Raditz was barely able to mumble. In response, Vegeta merely kicked him once more and then let him go.

"And what have you brought with you?" Vegeta eyed the quivering Gohan.

Raditz shakily gathered himself up from the ground. Blood ran from his nose and bruises already formed on his skin. He winced with pain, but otherwise seemed able to move without much of a problem.

"He's my brother’s son, Your Highness. I want to train him into a proper warrior."

Vegeta pressed the side button on his scouter.

"Raditz, he’s not worth it. His power level barely registers," he stated in a dismissive tone.

"I know that. His father neglected his training. But he is the only Saiyan cub we know of, the only other Saiyan alive. It wouldn't hurt to at least try and train him," Raditz tried to persuade.

"Vegeta, I think Raditz's right this time. It's worth a shot. We can always kill the cub later if he shows no hope of growing stronger. But if he does, then we could..." Nappa trailed off. He was afraid of creating futile expectations.

"Do whatever you want," Vegeta spat. "He's your responsibility and your problem. But don't let it come in the way of your duties," he warned. "Either way, He can't become any sorrier excuse of an excuse for a warrior than you are. "

With those words of warning, Vegeta flew away, much to Gohan's relief.